Florida Lawsuit Alleges Ferrari Dealer Rolled Back Odometer Mileage

What does a $1.5 million LaFerrari have to do with pound cake and libel? If you answered “a lawsuit in southern Florida,” please pass go and collect 950 horsepower.

A salesman at Ferrari of Palm Beach has sued a client who allegedly blamed him for rolling back the odometer on his 2015 LaFerrari and, according to court documents and the U.K. newspaper Daily Mail, which first broke the story, he alleges a global scheme in which Ferrari itself colludes with owners to lower the mileage on their used supercars.

According to a complaint initially filed last August in Palm Beach County circuit court by Robert “Bud” Root, a 71-year-old salesman, the LaFerrari’s owner—former Sara Lee CEO Charles Steven McMillan—paid one of the dealer’s mechanics a private cash payment to reset his car’s mileage to zero using a factory-authorized tool, which may have raised the value by as much as $1 million. When confronted by dealership management, McMillan allegedly blamed Root, who sold him the LaFerrari in May 2015. Root was later fired for what, according to a separate lawsuit against the dealership, he believed was age discrimination due to the general manager’s allegedly replacing him with that manager’s 32-year-old girlfriend. Months later, Root was rehired, according to the August complaint, and alleged knowledge of another scheme used by McMillan to evade Florida sales tax by registering his cars in Montana but keeping them in Florida. McMillan has rejected any claims that he slandered Root or that he was involved in resetting his odometer.

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But beyond the local squabble, the lawsuit here questions the integrity of used Ferrari models due to what Ferrari calls the Diagnostic Easy Information System (DEIS) Tester, which has been a factory ECU programmer for all late-model cars since the 599GTB. According to the lawsuits, the DEIS Tester wirelessly connects with factory computers in Italy by sending diagnostic information and authorizing certain reprogramming procedures such as odometer resets. While this is standard practice among many factory-authorized repair tools used by franchised dealers, Root claims Ferrari is implicitly allowing dealerships to tweak the mileage of customer cars without a valid legal reason (such as a parts failure, new engine, etc.). This would throw the Ferrari market “into turmoil,” according to the original complaint. Mileage fraud—specifically, the act of modifying an odometer readout on a car 10 years old or newer and not informing the buyer—is a felony. We’re not sure, however, what Ferrari corporate would gain by allegedly complying with this practice among used cars sold by franchised dealers.

“We do not comment on litigation between a dealer and its employees,” Ferrari North America said in a statement. “This litigation involves third parties with respect to Ferrari North America, and the litigation does not involve Ferrari. Ferrari reserves the right to take all appropriate action against any party that has adversely affected its rights.”